3 Ways Texting Can Make Your Law Firm More Successful

Whether you have a private practice or work for a large law firm, it’s important to keep accurate and organized documentation. Maintaining precise records of conversations that you have with your clients not only helps improve your firm’s efficiency, it also has the potential to help your business grow.

Some of the biggest and most frequent complications that law firms run into include: quickly communicating with clients, keeping clean accounting records and creating operational efficiency. With the growing demand for instant communication, texting software is a viable solution to help law firms combat each of these pain points.

1. Connect with clients faster, through their channel of choice

The average person takes about 90 minutes to respond to an email, but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message. Lawyers can receive immediate responses from clients by texting to confirm a consultation, resolve a billing issue or share case photos.

The reality is that despite the wave of chat apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp pervading the telecom landscape, 94 percent of smart-phone users still choose to text. What’s more, 90 percent of all cell phones in the world are SMS-capable, and roughly 4.2 billion people already text. It’s no wonder then that texting has become one of the most efficient methods of communication; it’s a tool that has become engrained in our culture.

Like in the early days of email, when law firms discovered how modern technology could shift how they do day-to-day business, firms have another opportunity to harness a powerful tool for connecting with clients. Reaching clients more directly and quickly means saving yourself time you might otherwise spend leaving voicemails and emails, and using their preferred form of communication will also shape a more human experience that establishes trust.

2.Keep client communications organized

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), “firms must ensure the capture of business related communications regardless of the devices or networks used. A firm must capture and maintain all business-related communications in such a way that the firm can review them for inappropriate business conduct.” In other words, firms are required to keep clean records because they have a duty to produce evidence in a court room at any time.

In the instances where lawyers use their personal phone to text their clients, transposing the information captured through text messages into official records can be cumbersome and pose a risk to their accuracy. There’s no sure way to monitor whether all the data was captured in the first place, and if it was done so correctly. That’s why firms that implement business texting also need to make sure they utilize software that more effectively archives the information shared during business conversations.

Law firms use a variety of platforms to carry out daily business functions, and switching back and forth between them all can eat up precious billable time. Wherever possible, firms should find efficiencies between products.

That’s why Zipwhip has integrated its texting platform with the leading cloud-based practice-management system, Clio. With this partnership, law firms can connect with their clients through text messaging using their existing business phone numbers, and automatically archive those conversations in an intuitive, searchable format. Zipwhip provides a 360-degree view of client communications by syncing text conversations to the existing Clio database in real time. Conversation threads and photos are stored, dated and time-stamped for accountability and systematic case management.

Want to learn more?

Join us for a series of webinars on how to best make the Zipwhip + Clio integration work for you and your business.

Zipwhip is the productivity tool that lets businesses and customers text each other. Zipwhip text-enables your existing (landline, VoIP, or toll free) business number. With direct connections to tier 1 carriers, Zipwhip is the trusted, scalable solution to business texting.